Topography right is a property right which arises
automatically in the design of semiconductor chips. Topography right is
similar to design right except that:
it protects the original design, however expressed,
of a semiconductor layer pattern in a chip having two or more layers, a
mask layer pattern for use in the manufacture of such a chip, and the
arrangement of the layers of such a chip relative to one another;
licences of right are not available during the last
five years of the duration of the topography right;
topography right is available on the basis of
reciprocity to citizens or residents of member states of the European
Union or of other countries in which there is equivalent protection;
and
there is are somewhat strange exceptions to
infringement in the cases of:
reproduction for the purpose of analysing or
evaluating the topography or analysing, evaluating or teaching the
concepts, processes, systems or techniques embodied in it: and
creation of another original topography as the
result of such an analysis or evaluation.
